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S u n d ay, O c t O b e r 26, 2025

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Shutdown’s impact looms on state’s horizon

Much of La. hasn’t seen effects yet, but as stalemate continues, consequences will broaden BY STEPHANIE RIEGEL | Staff writer STAFF PHOTOS By JOHN BALLANCE

Hardwick Planting Co. picks cotton in Tensas Parish at Somerset Plantation. After decades of challenges, Louisiana farmers are harvesting their lowest acreage of cotton in state history.

LOSING ITS

CROWN

Louisiana cotton farmers fighting to keep harvests bountiful after decades of challenges BY AIDAN McCAHILL | Staff writer Kade McMahon glides atop a ﬁeld of bleached cumulus tufts. With a joystick, he steers a set of massive yellow teeth that gobble the white like a snowplow. Summer has again overstayed its welcome in northeast Louisiana, but McMahon is sealed from the hot and dusty air, sitting comfortably inside an airconditioned cotton picker. It’s not a bad gig for the 21-yearold, who got his start mowing grass during summers in high school. Now he operates a machine worth nearly $1 million. “I can’t tell you how many farmers are jealous we got Kade,” said Marshall Hardwick, his boss. “Locally grown, hardworking … they just don’t exist anymore, it seems like.” In October, Tensas Parish — long the state’s top cotton producer — can look more like an early winter in New Hampshire, as white ﬂakes dust the shoulders of La. 65. In Newellton, Hardwick and his brother Mead farm 9,200 acres of the 20,000-acre Somerset Plantation, the rest owned by 45 other family members. The fourth-generation farmers grow soybean and corn more than

In his day job as president of Woodward Interests, Bill Hoffman hasn’t much noticed the federal government shutdown. His New Orleans real estate development firm is still planning projects, like the redevelopment of the former Lindy Boggs Medical Center in MidCity, and operating as usual with ä Louisiana no disruptions to supply chains or Politics: services. Shutdown As a volunteer for Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New adding Orleans and Acadiana, however, another layer Hoffman has seen the effects up of stress to close. He’s worked with the non- state. PAGE 14A profit organization’s leadership to identify new funding sources at a time when more people around New Orleans need food assistance and federal support is drying up. He fears it’s about to get a lot worse. Thousands of federal workers in the state have been furloughed or are working without a paycheck. Loans and other federal funding sources are no longer flowing. And beginning Nov. 1, food

ä See SHUTDOWN, page 6A

EBR schools staff warned to enroll in health plan All district personnel must go through process for 2026 Mead Hardwick, left, and his younger brother Marshall Hardwick, owners of Hardwick Planting Co. at Somerset Plantation stand in a cotton field in Tensas Parish. anything else, but dedicate 1,600 acres to their passion: cotton. This year’s harvest is shaping up to be a great one; the brothers are averaging about 3 bales per acre — or roughly 1,400 pounds. That’s over 500 pounds more than a typical year. “We may potentially have a record cotton crop,” Hardwick said.

“And we may still potentially lose money.” In fact, it’s rare for any farmers in northeast Louisiana to have turned a proﬁt on cotton in the past decade. Demand and prices remain too low, as growers face pressures like tariffs and an ongoing

ä See COTTON, page 8A

BY CHARLES LUSSIER | Staff writer All active and some retired public school employees in East Baton Rouge Parish will soon lose their health insurance if they fail to formally enroll by Friday. Throughout October, school leaders have been blasting current and former employees with emails, printed mail and texts. A special district webpage loaded with information on the topic opens with this stark message in large type: “Open Enrollment is mandatory and must be completed by all employees and retirees by October 31st! If you don’t enroll in a new medical plan, you will lose medical coverage for 2026.” Current employee coverage ends Dec. 31.

ä See HEALTH PLAN, page 5A

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